Forex reserves go above $20 billion

Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves have gone past the $20-billion mark again, central bank data showed.

The reserves stood at $20.19 billion on February 20. It was $19.94 billion a week ago and $20.03 billion on January 24.

The slight increase in the reserves came a week after the Bangladesh Bank introduced currency swaps with banks for the first time in order to meet the net reserve condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with its $4.7 billion loan programme.

Usually, the central bank has to buy the greenback if it needs to raise the reserve to meet the condition. Now, it may get foreign currencies from banks for a certain period in exchange for only interest.

Recently, the reserves have also received a boost riding on loans from the development partners as well as a pick-up in exports and remittances and a fall in imports.

Merchandise exports rebounded strongly in January as manufacturers shipped goods worth $5.72 billion, the highest in a single month.

Similarly, the remittance flow rose to a seven-month high in the first month of the year. Imports fell 22.41 percent in November, the latest for which data from the central bank was available.

In December, the IMF and the Asian Development Bank provided $689 million and $400 million, respectively.

Amid higher import bills against moderate remittance and export receipts, the gross international reserves slipped to $24.3 billion in 2022-23 from $36 billion in 2019-20.

It stood at $46.4 billion in 2020-21, the highest on record.